International Electives & Student Medical Missions for Duke Medical School Students

Although Duke does not make it as easy as many other schools to get involved in international electives, there are many opportunities for overseas electives as well as funding to help you realize your goals.

Timetable

• Start early (the beginning of 3rd year)
• Find a preceptor
  • In order to insure approval, it is best if your preceptor is American trained
  • Gather information (a CV) on your preceptor
• Put together a description of your proposed international experience
• Put together a budget
• Apply for funding
• Apply for 4 units of credit through CFM-299C
• Apply for approval through your dean and the study away committee
• Notes:
  • Because some 4th year courses are 5 units and you can take 1 unit courses, most students have vacation time that they can use to extend their stay.
  • You cannot do an away rotation as the last rotation of senior year.

Opportunities

• Goldsmith MF. Gunby P., Physician Service Opportunities Abroad, JAMA v276, n5, Aug. 7 1996, pp355-359.
  • Full text available on OVID
• International Health Medical Education Consortium (IHMED)
  • See Dean Haynes
  • http://www.unmc.edu/Community/ihmec/
  • Provides a list of potential advisors with contact information.
• the American Medical Student Association's International Health Electives Directory
  • http://www.amsa.org/resource/intl/intlintro.html
• International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA)
  • http://crick.fmed.uniba.sk/ifmsa/IFMSA.html
• The Christian Medical & Dental Society
  • http://www.duke.edu/web/CMDS/missions.html
  • CMDS's Global Health Outreach Mission Match (http://www.cmds.org/Students/stumissions.htm)
    • The Mission Match program will help you with finding a preceptor, funding, and arranging transportation.
• Operation Smile
  • http://www.operationsmile.com/student_news/medstudents.html
  • Plastic surgery
• Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania.
  • DUMC and KCMC have a long-standing relationship
  • See Dr. Hamilton in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Duke
  • Advice on KCMC
• Connections
  • http://www.cua.edu/www/rel/pallotti
  • Mostly groups affiliated with different religious denominations
• Orthopedics Overseas
  • http://www.hvusa.org/
• SWAZILAND elective

Funding

(the average cost ~$2500 but funding is available)

• Wilburt C. Davison Scholarship
  • Through the Dean's office (Catharine Hershey)
• Creative Funding for International Health Electives
  • http://www.med.ufl.edu/oihp/students/funding.htm
• AMA International Medical Student Studies Program (AMA department of medical student services)
  • http://www.ama-assn.org/ama-mss.htm
• MAP/Reader's Digest International Fellowships
  • http://map.org/
  • Pays 75% of your airfare
  • Will help with placement (contact early)
• the Duke Chapel Offering Student Mission Fund
  • http://www.chapel.duke.edu/friends/endowlst.htm
• the James S. Westra Memorial Endowment Fund of the Christian Medical & Dental Society
  • http://www.cmds.org/westra.htm
• the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (for Baptists)
  • http://www.imb.org/
• the American Medical Women's Association's American Women's Hospitals Service
  • http://www.amwa-doc.org/Foundation/awhs.htm
• the American Bureau for Medical Advancement in China (Taiwan)
  • Annie Kang c/o New York Academy of Medicine 1216 5th Avenue New York NY 10029
  • 212-860-1990
• the Paul Alexander Memorial Fund of Management Sciences for Health
  • c/o Jean Alexander 1666 Coffman #220 St. Paul, MN 55108
  • 612-647-1231
  • Funds an international public health project
• Global Health Ministries (Lutherans)
  • http://www.ghm.org/
• the Charles S. Houston Award of the Wilderness Medical Society
  • PO Box 2463 Indianapolis, IN 46206
  • Wilderness and environmental medicine electives
• Partners of the Americas
  • http://www.partners.net/English/indexeng.htm
• Any organization (like a church or ethnic organization) to which you belong
• Sister City Organizations
  • Sister Cities International 120 South Payne Street Alexandria VA 22314
  • 703-836-3535

  Feel free to contact me, Bill Foster wjf2@duke.edu if I can help. Also, check out information on my trip to Mwanza, Tanzania at http://www.duke.edu/~wjf2/tanzania.html.